


The Shape of Love to Come

by padfootprophet



Category: The World Next Door (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, POV Second Person, Rainy is a sweetheart and I love him, set after the game so some spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 03:19:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19844482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padfootprophet/pseuds/padfootprophet
Summary: Returning to Emrys isn't everything you hoped, except in the places that it is, curled in the quiet of Rainy's bedroom.





	The Shape of Love to Come

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I'm sorry I wrote this in second person I just feel like Jun is supposed to feel like an extension of ourselves.  
> Title is shared with a Say Anything track.

You sit, cross-legged, on the plush blankets and soft cushions that cover Rainy's bed, your back against a bare patch of wall between posters of an Emryn musician you think Liza might have showed you once - before things between you became so uncomfortable - and an earth movie you're only vaguely familiar with. The posters, along with everything else lining the walls, are heavy with pop culture you never spent time getting to know, so caught between the worlds themselves you never spent time with anything classified as normal teenage hobbies.

You try to focus on the book lying in your lap that Cerrise had lent you; magical theory that you would probably find fascinating if you could focus on it, but your gaze keeps falling from the book to the feathered tail laying across the bed inches from you. Your fingers itch with the desire to just reach out.

Rainy is oblivious to the way your gaze flickers towards him, your stare hidden behind the mask, and he's completely absorbed in his own work. You're not sure if it's a school project or if he's just researching humans to satisfy his own curiosity. You wonder if you should offer more help - not that you're an expert on humanity, or even apparently fully human. Your thoughts fall back to Cornell, and his revelations. You've searched around since returning but either Cornell doesn't want to be found or isn't around to be found. You're not sure which is more frustrating; the answers you were looking for were half of the reason you came back and now they're nowhere to be found.

A sigh escapes your lips unbidden, book totally forgotten in the shadow of your own thoughts, but the sound draws Rainy's attention.

"Sorry," he says, dropping the pen he'd been tapping to a nameless rhythm and shifting to focus on you, "You probably want to do something more interesting than study."

"Oh, it's okay," you say, your face heating with embarrassment behind the well carved mask. "I think I've probably had enough interesting for a while."

"We don't have to go to a shrine or anything," he says, one hand moving to ruffle at his hair, even as his tail swishes across the soft blankets and settles closer to his body. "We could just head to the market, visit the arcade."

You hum noncommittally. The weather, all beautiful sunshine in your visit in the summer, has shifted with the approach of fall, and whilst it's not raining yet, the clouds are heavy outside the window. "I didn't even bring a coat," you admit quietly, not that Rainy doesn't know, not that you haven't been borrowing his sweaters on days you've braved the cold and overcast skies.

"I'm sorry you're stuck with me," Rainy says, when you don't give any more feedback.

You turn to him sharply. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not as interesting as Liza, or Cerisse, or even Horace."

You let out a snort of derision. "You're plenty interesting Rainy," you assure him, "And I'd rather be here than with any of them."

"You're still avoiding Liza?"

You bite your lip, not sure how to express what's happening between you and Liza. Persimmon's return has only reinforced the idea that Liza won, in the end, and even though you made it back to Earth it wasn't because of her actions but because of who you are, a part of you she didn't even know about.

There's a thud of Rainy's textbooks dropping onto the floor and then he's shuffling across the bed to wrap an arm around your shoulders. "I'm sorry," he says.

"Why? You weren't the one who betrayed me." You hate how bitter your voice sounds, and how close to tears you are. "I could have died, I _would_ have died if I weren't…" The words die out in your throat. Even now the revelations of your heritage make your head spin. You lean into Rainy's comforting hug and curl your fingers into the soft blankets beneath you.

"I can't even blame her, not really." You'd met Persimmon, all smiles and kindness, so happy to finally meet Liza's Earth friend, and Paxton, too, with his warm laugh and cheer. Their lives for yours seemed a fair trade and you didn't even have to die. "I just wish it had been different," you admit quietly.

"I'm glad I got to meet you though, and even if it was terrible I'd still do it again," Rainy says.

You feel a slight smile work across your face. "You really did get brave somewhere in there, huh?"

"Yeah," Rainy looks at you, and you meet his eyes through the shadows of the mask before he looks away again smiling. "Guess I did."

You watch the freedom of Rainy's expression and make a decision. Pulling away slightly you lift both hands to the ribbon holding the mask to your face. Rainy notices your movement and lifts a hand to your elbow. "You don't have to…" he starts.

You shake your head to cut him off, not sure how to explain that you need this. "It's not like you don't already know what I am," you say. You pull the knot free with practised ease, letting the mask fall away from your face and into your lap. You still feel a little ashamed, the mark covering your face was something you grew to hate and even though you know Rainy won't make the same judgement your human classmates did the self-consciousness is embedded in you.

Rainy stares, eyes trailing from the birthmark, down your nose and settling briefly on your lips. He doesn't say anything, until you feel the faint brush of his tail against your knee as it curls around the two of you and the shock of the contact causes him to shift backwards, eyes dropping as his cheeks flush red.

"You… uh, you're beautiful," he admits to the sliver of blanket between the two of you.

"Not by most human standards," you say, eyes focused on the mask in your lap as your fingers trace the edges of it.

He leans forward again, his hands braced on the bed either side of you, and you look up into his face, at his reddened cheeks, in stark contrast to the cool gems trailing up from his neck, his eyes determined.

"Rainy?" you ask quietly when he doesn't say anything.

"Trying to be brave," he says, his face inches away from yours.

You gently lift a hand and run your fingers across the gemstones, settling your palm against his neck and hoping you're not misreading things and that maybe the feelings you've been pushing aside since his brush with grievancy are worth something. You cross the distance and press your lips to his in a quick and gentle kiss.

As you pull back he rocks forward a little to follow you, eyes gazing into your own. "I was getting there," he says quietly, before closing the gap again. You let him guide the kiss, let him pull you backwards so you both fall onto the bed, his tail resting around the back of your knee, his hands settling against your waist as he presses a series of sweet kisses to your lips, each one pushing away your uncertainty until you feel ready to face a rain of fireballs.

Outside the overcast sky gives way to rain but you hardly notice.


End file.
